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“What do you mean, you can’t get me out? You put me in here!”

“I was asleep.”

The seal wobbled with indignation, flippers paddling. “This thing is obviously a trap and you brought it here!”

Nate contemplated Bartholomew’s dumb smiling face.

How could Bartholomew be a ghost trap?

Jonah had won him at a fair. He was just an ordinary toy. Fat, round, and fluffy.

But.

The seal had vanished once when Nate was ten. They’d moved houses, and Bartholomew was gone for a few weeks and then turned up in a box that Nate had thought he’d already unpacked. He’d blamed the move.

Maybe he’d been wrong.

Nate checked his phone. It was almost midnight. “I’ll call my brother in the morning.”

“Your brother?”

“He gave me the seal. He might know something.”

“No way! He’s your brother so he’s also a medium. I don’t want any more mediums in my house. Nate. Nate. Where are you taking me? Set me down immediately!”

Nate settled Bartholomew on top of the duffel bag, where the seal had a clear view of the room. “I’m going back to sleep for a few hours. Try to get some rest yourself.”

“Some rest? I’m stuck in a fat seal that won’t stop smiling!”

“And if you had just let me exorcise you, you would be at rest now. Something to think about.”

Leo was stunned into silence for almost a full minute as Nate settled back in his sleeping bag. Then he picked up steam again. “If you think I’ll just let you go to sleep, you are so wrong. I will keep you up all night. I’ll be the most annoying ghost you’ve ever met! I can sing the same song for hours! Hours!”

“I could just lock you in the basement, you know.”

That stopped Leo’s rambling. “You’ll regret this,” he said in a low voice.

“I’m regretting this already,” Nate agreed, and then he went to sleep.

He woke to gray light and silence.

The seal sat on the duffel bag exactly where he’d left it, flippers stiff, stitched smile aimed at the ceiling. The silence had an enormous sulk in it.

“Morning,” Nate said.

Nothing.

“Sleep well?”

Nothing.

Fine by Nate. He could use a quiet morning. He got up, carried the seal to the kitchen, and got the coffee maker going.

“That coffee maker is way too loud,” the seal said behind him.

Nate turned around.

“I’m not talking to you,” Leo added.